Ashes Of Deep Sea

Chapter 29 Those Who Protect the City

Gods with supreme power lived in the cornerstone of the world, watching the world turn from a place that surpassed space and time. Believers would be able to peek into the future through the hidden connection with their gods, at things that could happen in a dark corner that people might not know about.

The peeks weren’t restricted by space and time but came with the risk of being corrupted by the subspace. However, to believers with strong wills, the dangerous yet powerful ability was what they could rely on to protect the fragile civilization in the endless ocean.

The faithful judge had already seen a similar vision for the past few days.

In a state between reality and dream, she saw the edgeless ocean dyed black with loud thunder roars coming from deep within the ocean. The sea was split into two by a space between the water that led straight down to the seafloor. A ship burning in bright flame slowly rose from the seabed, floating up into the sky like an airship. Following the ship was a shapeless giant shrouded in starlight and it started to walk toward the City-state of Pland.

In her whole life, Fanna, the judge, had only twice seen bad “premonition” on such a huge scale.

It once happened when she was still a child. She was woken up from a nightmare where she was covered in blood. Not long after that, she lost her parents in an ambush by the cultists, leaving that scar on her face for the rest of her life.

The second one happened four years ago. In her dream, she saw a black sunrise from beneath the city-state. With that, they were able to destroy the city-state’s biggest Sun God cultist base. Now, the cultists still bared their fangs toward Pland from the complex and old tunnels underneath the city-state and got into meaningless conflicts with guards from the church all the time.

Now, it was the third time she had such a premonition. She saw a ship returning from the deep sea, bringing a nameless giant to this world.

She lied to the priest in front of her. The premonition she had seen was very clear. It was so clear that she couldn’t sleep for the past few nights.

The priest looked at the lady’s soft and calm grey eyes. After a long hesitation, he said, “I’ve heard that you didn’t get anything good from praying to the goddess?”

“The goddess does not remind us of all the dangers we will face. Sometimes, it’ll be a difficult test for us,” Fanna calmly replied. “Let’s not talk about this. Any news from the Explorer’s Association?”

The priest nodded right away. “The association has just contacted us. The holy item with them has detected that the ship has appeared in the southeast region. However, the telegraph seems broken and we can’t contact the ship. We can only confirm that the ship is on the right route and is approaching Pland’s region.”

“It suddenly disappeared from the holy item’s detection and reappeared out of nowhere in a region far away from the original route. We can’t contact it and it’s approaching here… It’s also transporting the abnormal item before it disappears.” The judge started to frown. Her instincts from dealing with abnormal items in the past warned her to be careful. “I remember the ship is called the White Oak, right?”

“Yes. The White Oak. The captain is Laurence Creed, a member of the Explorer’s Association. He’s an experienced captain. Since they are transporting a special item, they contacted us before they departed from the City-state of Lunsar,” the priest replied after a short pause. “Also, the priest accompanying the voyage is registered with the Deep Sea Association.”

“A fellow peer, huh? I hope the situation isn’t that bad.” Fanna sounded serious. “I can tell something is wrong with the ship. The route from Lunsar to Pland is considered a “safe zone” under the control of the Explorer’s Association. And, yet, the ship disappeared from the holy item’s detection. I have reasons to believe that the White Oak had temporarily left the real world and headed into a place it shouldn’t have.

“Notify the guards at the harbor. I want them to keep a close watch on the White Oak once it reaches our port. No one and nothing is allowed to leave the ship until all inspections are done. Did the sheriff’s department say anything?”

“Yes. Your uncle… the archon has ordered the sheriffs to control the port and its surrounding. They’ve raised the security level and until the restriction is removed, all the ships will only arrive at and depart on the reserved port at the west.”

“That’s good. Uncle is a cautious man, after all.” Signs of relief could finally be seen on Fanna’s face. “Everything should be fine as long the normal sheriffs don’t get themselves involved in this.”

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The priest looked at Fanna’s grey eyes once again as he carefully chose his words. “Do you think that the ship… is ‘contaminated’?”

“I can’t say for sure yet. However, ships that eventually return to the real world are rarely normal. Perhaps something on the boat has been mutated into an ‘abnormal item’, or the mental state of the sailors has been affected. There are cases of suddenly having an extra sailor or the captain suddenly switched… It’s never wrong to raise our alerts when a ship has shown an abnormal phenomenon.”

“I pray to the goddess that the ship and its crew remain safe.” The priest put his hand on his chest and prayed. “O’ Wind Goddess, please protect those who challenge the great

sea.”

“I pray that they survive.” Fanna also closed her eyes and lightly prayed, reminding the priest. “However, if they are unfortunate, we’ll have to be prepared as well.”

“Yes. I understand.”

Fanna nodded, and just as she was about to shift her attention back to the city outside the window, hurried footsteps from the stairs stopped her.

A guard wearing a black and silver-lined uniform with a badge that reflected a wave and a dagger on his chest arrived at the top of the bell tower.

“Madam Judge!” the guard greeted as he gasped for air. “We’ve found a sacrificial altar of the Sun God cult in the sewer and caught a group of cultists!”

Fanna’s expression turned serious almost instantly. “The cultists who worship the Dark Sun? Wait, are you saying it’s an altar, not a hiding place? Are you saying that they are doing sacrificial rituals again?”

“Yes! It’s a location where they perform their rituals! We even found evidence that they’ve just performed one recently!” the guard quickly explained. “We also found a lot of dead bodies in a dungeon near the altar! Most of their hearts have been sacrificed! However… something is wrong with the scene.”

Fanna could see the confusion in the guard’s eyes. She grabbed the heavy greatsword blessed by the Wind Goddess next to her and flung it over her back. “Lead the way! I have to personally check this out!”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

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The bell tower was filled with hurried footsteps and the banging noise when the heavy sword clashed with the light armor. Fanna arrived at the plaza in front of the bell tower and found a handful of guards standing by and waiting for her order. Two steam-powered pedipulators were parked at the edge of the plaza. Cracking noise could be heard from the machines that looked like spiders.

Fanna did not stop. She signaled the guards and walked straight toward one of the pedipulators. The machine was twice the size of a two-wheel horse cart and looked like a resting spider when parked. At the end of its metal limbs were wheels that would help travel through flat surfaces and metal claws for other terrains. On each side of the main body were two seats with rotary machine guns.

Standard technology would do little to no damage to abnormal items and supernatural phenomena. However, strong firepower could be used to deal with the cultists controlling the abnormal items. Naturally, such a huge machine would be limited in the sewer, but it was enough to serve as a blockade.

The spray of 8-millimeter holy rounds could instantly send a massive group of cultists attempting an escape to meet their gods in the subspace.

The grey-haired and grey eyes judge jumped onto one of the pedipulators. She stood tall under the night sky while two other guards sat in the seats with the guns. With the increased pressure in the cylinder and pressure pipes, hisses of steam could be heard and white smoke was sent out from all the limbs. The enormous mechanical spider got up and with a single leap, it jumped onto the main road before speeding toward the sewer entrance with its wheels.